Keepsake Box: Episode 3
Posted 7 June 2017
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Once the rehearsal and dry run is done, a few adjustments can be made before rounding and beveling the rims of the lid and base. Then it’s time to glue up, ensuring tight joints. Once the box is cleaned up, it can be sawn in half before the joining edges are planed.
Disappointingly short 😟
agreed
I’m not certain, but I believe that the original intention for WWMC was to have all of the episodes run for approximately 30 minutes, however the team have been significantly more generous than that in the past which makes this seem short
Great! Thanks. You make it look easy when I know you demonstrate great skill!
Short, but only disappointing because any time a master is watched is too short.
Every project of yours is skill building project, Paul.
I recently finished my keepsake box, but complicated the design a bit more—that is, the lid panels are slightly extruded from the box. I think that I was trying to achieve a design of a turned spindle on the lathe.
I still think that this project isn’t very forgiving–mainly the dovetails. Any slight undercutting will show gaps once the box is shaped. Some other tip that I’d like to give (maybe you’ve mentioned in the previous video, sorry if I’m repeating) is that on a light coloured wood species pencil guide lines of the dovetails will show a dark “lamination” line. It looks alright if consistent, but would rather not have it. So now I know why you used knife marking instead of pencil.
Thanks for the project! Love it!
Love the project but feel like a couple steps got glossed over, namely how Paul worked out the angle for the dovetail bases in the first video and then making the cauls in this one. Just seems like Paul went abit more into those aspects of the craft in older videos.
I assume he traced his curved edge onto a scrap of pine, cut a stop cut in the center down to his line and chiseled to his line.
My compliments to all the crew! The filming was that good that while watching on my iPad, I actually went to blow a shaving out of the way while Paul was planing! I feel just a little bit silly now 🙂
Hi great video taking our skills to a new level, I like the technique of sawing the lid and truing up afterwards. I think you have the instructions time balance just right.
As a life long woodwork my skills level has gone up a notch. Many thanks looking forward to the next one.
Regards Larry.
My 3 year old daughter very much enjoys watching Paul with me on Wednesdays. She was VERY alarmed when Paul started sawing the box in half. Ha!
Very enjoyable series and turning into a beautiful box that i hope to make one day, thank you.
However, i do find this series to be very rushed though. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching past series where the pace of Paul’s work is methodical and calming with the editing reflecting this by not jumping between shots too much and not cutting the scenes too quickly to move onto the next step. For me this has been part of the joy of these videos, which has brought me a lot of pleasure and tranquility in my hectic life.
I do feel that this series is very quick; i can see even Paul trying to race through what he wants to say, at times without breath, i feel. As well the splash screens between sections seem abrubt to rush the episode on, which detracts from the previous calmness of other series’ recordings.
I noted others saying it was a short episode. I feel that it was, but actually probably covered the same content as normal, just the editing and Paul’s pace made it shorter. I would have been happy with the same amount of content, but panned out by another 10 mins through editing to calm the pace down.
It has taken me a while to decide to write this, as i don’t like to be critical, but i felt that the real joy of watching these series compared to others is their calmness and steady pace, which seems to reflect the nature of using hand tools. I just want to make sure that this important element is not lost or forgotten as WWMC matures.
Andy
I couldn’t agree more the very enjoyably calm confident manner is shockingly absent and I do mean shockingly.
Thank you everyone for your feedback, we really appreciate your comments. We are constantly tweaking our production to make the best instructional videos that we can.
Recent episodes have been longer than our aim of 28-35 minutes and we are trying to be more consistent in this. We certainly don’t want the videos to seem rushed, so we will try to get this balance between speed, detail and delivery right.
We hope you will see this improve with time, and it should enable us to present projects that were previously unfeasible.
All the best
I often download the videos and then watch them the first time played back at a faster speed. The first viewing is just for recreation and curiosity. if I decide to build a project, than I watch it at regular speed and sometimes “rewind” and review sections. I am not sure there is a perfect, one-size-fits-all length for videos.
Perhaps in addition to the introduction video you could do an “overview” video that would breeze thru the steps without trying to cover then fully? The full length videos could stretch out to 45 minutes, and the overview videos could be limited to 15 minutes.
Philip-
No question the over all production quality has improved, and I will say having the sections title was nice instead of just the WWMC splash screen. In this case, the increase in quality may be it’s own demon. The better we can see what Paul is doing, the more we want to actually watch Paul do it.
I appreciate that you are constantly thinking about these things. The one point I want to make is that I would rather watch this than broadcast tv. I don’t mind if the overall video is 10 or 15 percent longer. I am watching this for both pleasure and to learn. It’s only one video a week.
@joeleonetti – I agree 100%, I feel exactly the same way about the videos & their length. I wish they were all like the tool chest video, I feel like that series was perfectly edited & the longer stretches of Paul’s instruction/demonstration was immensely helpful.
my feeling regarding being rushed , this shouldn’t make any difference to the pupils/viewers as you will work at a speed your comfortable at . in some ways in my opinion paul is demonstrating how much quicker you can work after gaining more experience. any pupil watching and making any of his projects will undoubtedly keep referring back to the video to recap and double check what they are doing or how they have marked the components , hope this helps , Peter
work is work and hobbies is hobbies
I’m really going to enjoy building this box just what I was looking for as a gift for my Mom.
Thanks Paul,
When Paul makes a mistake and how he recovers from that mistake is one of the important features of the videos
I just like to watch Paul work and am happy that he shares as much as he does. Demands on his time must be fairly rigorous. Putting all of this together for us with Paul and those filming, editing and everything else that goes into these productions is overall great. We all have to balance our daily demands, our work, hobbies and other obligations. Personally, I can (and have) watched Paul all day long and then had to catch with my obligations. Still , all that said. I hope everyone will remember that the reason we are here is to learn what he has to offer. Without him there is nothing to view, nothing to film, nothing to edit. I hope the tail never wags the dog here.
Having a lot of fun with this project. My lids seem to be pushing my tail recesses apart. Should i keep trimming ,gradually the tongue until lid does not push?
Just noticed, old bench before inserting repair block from saw damage. Dang, some time has passed, but the tips and tricks are timeless.
I’m enjoying this series a lot, and will try my hand at this type o box in the near future.
I have found that using a paint knife works really well for spreading the glue into the tails and pins, so I would suggest you try it.
When using your hand plane do you push down and across or just across the wood?
A well sharpened plane should only need to be pushed across to make a cut. You add additional pressure to the front and rear shoe when you are starting and finishing at the edge, to avoid tipping the plane.
have a look at the video:
Bench heights and planing technique
dated 11 janv. 2014
I find, there are times when firmness if not outright downwards pressure is needed when entering the cut in some woods and some grain orientations. Once begun, though, little or no pressure is needed.
my feeling regarding being rushed , this shouldn’t make any difference to the pupils/viewers as you will work at a speed your comfortable at . in some ways in my opinion paul is demonstrating how much quicker you can work after gaining more experience. any pupil watching and making any of his projects will undoubtedly keep referring back to the video to recap and double check what they are doing or how they have marked the components , hope this helps , Peter
Hello team, viewers:
I’m left a bit confused on the sizing of the top/bottom of the box. So, I’m hoping for some clarification.
In Episode 2 it appears that Paul measures the inside dimensions of the box. That is, the side to side inside dimension and the end to end inside dimension. He then adds 3/4″ to each measurement and uses the sum as the dimensions for the width and length of the top/bottom.
Indeed, this would leave a 3/8″ reveal all around the perimeter of the box where the lid rests on the sides. Or, said another way, the lid would be 3/4″ shorter than the length of the box and 3/4″ narrower than the width of the box. Once the lid is centered there would be 3/8″ exposed all around the perimeter where the lid meets the box walls.
When Paul shows the box lid being fitted in Episode 3 the width and length of the top are nearly the same as the outside dimension of the box, which is 6″ wide and 12″ long. Paul even mentions about 1 millimeter difference between the box lid and box sides.
Also, in the cutting list the top/bottom are specified to be 6″ wide and 12″ long.
Am I interpreting something incorrectly?
Is the intent to have a 3/8″ reveal all around the rim of the box where the lid meets the sides, or should the lid be made 12″ long and 6″ wide and just rounded over slightly?
Thanks,
Ed
Hi Ed,
Once the four sides of the box are rounded, they will be approximately the same size as the top/bottom. You are understanding the measurement of the top/bottom correctly. The missing piece of the equation is that the sides are rounded inward another 3/8″ each, so the 6×12 box only measures 6×12 in the middle … the top and bottom outside edges will be 3/4″ narrower overall once they are rounded, and they will be the same width as the top/bottom pieces. Hope this makes sense and clarifies it for you. I made 3 of these boxes, very fun project!
Hi Scott,
Yes, thank you very much for your reply and the additional details.
I knew I was missing something because, if the lid were the full six inches wide, then the groove would have to be 9/16″ deep in order to clear the sides of the box, which are 9/16″ thick, but Paul made the groove 3/8″ deep.
I actually changed course and decided to make a pine prototype to see how this all works out. I started with Mahogany to make a box for my wife as a gift.
Cheers,
Ed